Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of chronic prosta-titis: a meta-analysis

ProstantTM is a suppository made up of several kinds of Chinese herbs, the main ingredients being Cortex Phellodendri, Fructus Gardeniae, Rhizoma Polygoni Cuspidati, Herba Lycopi and Radix et Rhizoma Rhei, which have been reported to inhibit many kinds of bacteria, fungi and viruses [1, 2].

In our study we used meta-analysis to investigate the effectiveness of ProstantTM on chronic prostatitis. Medline, Embase, CBMdisc and Cochrane Library were searched for randomized case-controlled trials ( RCTs) . The search strategy was made according to the demand of the Cochrane Collaboration. Data were extracted by two reviewers using designed extraction form. RevMan were used for data management and analysis. Thirty-eight relevant trials were searched, of which 4 were included [3-6]. Meta-analysis showed: ProstantTM can decrease the WBC in the expressed prostatic secretion, improve the pain symptoms and the voiding symptoms.The corresponding pooled relative risk (RR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) was 1.81 (1.29, 2.53), 1.36 (1.14, 1.62) and 2.25 (1.51, 3.37), respectively. The total effective rate of ProstantTM was statistically significant [RR 2.36, 95 % CI (1.79, 3.10), P<0.01]. The occurrence of adverse events were similar in the ProstantTM and placebo-treated men. Limitation of this meta-analysis lies mainly in the way that the 4 included trials collected a small number of cases which may cause publication bias in a certain sort of sense.

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